


Net

by Harukami



Category: DRAMAtical Murder (Visual Novel), DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-25 23:01:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3828190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harukami/pseuds/Harukami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Usui is another Sei, but Usui is Toue's Allmate. What does this mean for Sei? <br/>A short story about Sei's relationship to Usui.</p><p>Thanks to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/BrushDog/pseuds/BrushDog">Brushdog</a> for name translations and discussions with me about this before!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Net

Sei is sixteen when Toue shoos away his bodyguards, takes him by the hand, and pulls him upright. Sei goes limply, limbs only as responsive as they need to be to follow Toue's wishes. Being too limp is also a form of resistance, and he doesn't toe that line.

"Sei," Toue says, with that gentle tone of his, the doting possessiveness so familiar to Sei that he no longer recalls if he's ever heard a different emotion in his voice, "there's something I want to show you. Be a good boy and come along."

Of course he goes. It doesn't matter where they're going; Toue's asked for it, so he has no choice. Even the freedom he can steal is only defined in opposition to the behavior they think they're getting. Show one face, and hide the other.

Toue leads him down a long corridor. He moves slowly, in deference to the aches in Sei's body, to his vertigo. "Sei," he says. "I've been very interested where this project of yours is going."

"Project...?" Sei murmurs.

"The network, of course." Toue is completely matter-of-fact, still tender. "Whenever you send a part of yourself out, an electronic line is formed along the path it followed. It criss-crosses the city so completely now. I'm sure you're aware that people other than myself have noticed it?"

He means Rhymers, of course, people who have managed to set up a projected field between different nodes where his soul's fragments have crossed each other in their desperate attempts to escape his body. They use the registration to their Allmate to project their own consciousnesses out into a stable field, all without losing connection to their bodies.

"Yes," he says. Never mind that he had believed that Toue hadn't noticed his escapes, that Toue hadn't tied the network back to him. That doesn't matter now. 

"It's good that the youth of this city have hobbies," Toue says amicably, and leans in to a retinal scanner, smiles as it unlocks a door in the hallway. "But of course, as much as their happiness matters, we can't forget the purpose we would turn that happiness to, can we?"

It was obvious. Toue had spent a few years now gathering promising Rhymers, training them up. He'd been aware of it, but still foolishly forged ahead, thinking 'it has nothing to do with me.'

"Leaving it a street activity is a little gauche, and we need to start tracking their metrics properly," Toue continues lightly. "I'm sure you haven't been doing so. Have you, Sei?"

"No," Sei says.

He leads Sei down the previously-locked corridor, ignoring rooms along the sides. This area is Toue's Allmate research; not the development, that's another floor. This is for the exploits, the loopholes, the programs he can slide in, for testing them, for determining their effectiveness on the human mind. This is a corridor where prisoners or other forgettable subjects are brought in, and the people brought out have no minds left, lost in feedback. Sei doesn't have any expectations he'll have such luck.

"People want to be controlled; even those who enjoy this game now will want a sense of order to it. Not simply hijacking each other's minds, but even rules. Scores. A way to track their wins and losses on a global scale. An assurance that the matches are even so their victories are sweet. Isn't that how it is?"

He doesn't expect an answer this time, so Sei doesn't give one.

"That data will be important to us as well, of course." He doesn't explain how. "With that in mind, I've been working on creating an arbiter. They are very beautiful, very gentle, very determined. I modeled them off you, Sei."

It's not really a compliment. The door at the end of the hall opens and Toue leads Sei in by the hand.

Sitting on a bench is a humanoid robot -- not one of the infiltration series that Toue has been working on which Sei is so familiar with, but a humanoid Allmate. Though humanoid, there's no attempt to pass for human; the robot has ten arms, beautiful features, perfect curves, unnatural hair color, more a deva than a person. They tilt their head up and smile at Sei as he enters.

Not at Sei, he realizes. At Toue.

With a flash, he sees the connection between them, the registration. This is an Allmate, certainly, which means it's registered to a person, has a direct connection to that person's brain, is ultimately obedient to that person and nobody else. 

"This is Usui," Toue says. It's even a play on Toue's name. 'East water' for Usui. 'East bay' for Toue. "From now on, you can think of Usui as another you."

"Nice to meet you," Usui says. Their voice is masculine, booming, charismatic in a sort of sleazy way. Sei finds himself wanting to cringe back, but doesn't let it show in his body. There's nothing of Sei in this Allmate, Sei thinks, with a sharp-edged bitterness that shocks even himself.

Toue hasn't noticed or doesn't care. "As I was saying," he says, looking at Sei rather than at Usui, smiling in that proprietorial way, "the thing you built is interesting. It's useful. And it's time we controlled it."

"Yes," Sei says. His voice nearly doesn't come out.

"From now on, you can stop leaving on those networks. What you've built is enough. But this arbiter of ours is just an Allmate. They can gather data, but they can't support a network of minds on their own. From now on, we'll choose when Rhyme starts, we'll choose who is allowed to participate, and we'll bring it into something we can use. To do that, we'll have you ride inside Usui when it's time for Rhyme to begin."

Every time, Sei thinks, with an anger that finds outlet only at himself, not at Toue. Every time Toue said 'we' he meant 'Toue'. There's no surprise there. He was foolish to think any part of himself could be free. All it did was build a cage for Toue to trap him in again.

"I'd like you to enter Usui now as a test, Sei. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes," Sei says.

"Let's get started," Usui says in a commanding voice, holding out a hand to him, smiling with a delicate sweetness. 

Toue slides an arm around Sei, keeping his body close to prevent him from hurting himself when he leaves it. A dull ache fills him, and he throws his body aside, flings himself from that aching form along the network into Usui.

Around himself, Toue's net tightens. He can feel Toue's connection to Usui, taste it, smell it; every sense that belonged to his body is now electronic, reading the connection in sensory form because his brain cannot interpret it any other way. The shell around himself has its own personality, abrasive and determined and aggressive; that personality, too, is a reflection of what Toue wanted in an Allmate.

"We've got our synchronization up," Usui tells Toue, pleased and smiling. "This should work out fine."

"Excellent." Through Usui's eyes, Sei watches Toue lean down, put a gloved hand to Usui's cheek. He can't look away, because Usui holds the eye contract. He doesn't try to influence Toue through that contact. There's no way to make it work. "Sei."

"Yes?" He speaks through Usui's firm voice, cringes again inside at how counter it runs to how he wants to present.

"Consider this a gift. You've always wanted to see outside the tower, clearly, or you wouldn't have thrown these parts of yourself out. Now, we'll institute a program that will guarantee you can ride my Usui out there to see it. Rather than punishing you, I'll offer you this kindness."

As a part of Toue. A symbol of Toue's influence. A body connected to Toue's.

"I'm grateful," he lies; Usui's voice makes it sound genuine and firm. "Thank you."


End file.
